EMUs a History

2016 | Transportation

From nationalisation in 1948, British Railways built huge numbers of EMUs for suburban and short/medium distance main line express duties, initially of pre-nationalisation design. In 1954 the Standard Mark 1 type was introduced, but was obsolete by the late 1960s. More EMUs were needed to replace life-expired pre-nationalisation sets still working as well as to provide for new electrification services that were planned. The result was a complete fresh start in design terms with Southern Regions' '4-PEP' design of 1971 from which several very successful classes were derived - the second generation. Second generation EMUs cover a huge number of current services today. As the 1990s dawned, change was in the air. The former British Railways workshops, already under the aegis of British Rail Engineering Limited, were to be sold and the privatisation of the entire BR network was looming. Before BREL was bought by ABB, they produced the first of the 'Networker' design in 1991 - effectively the first of the third generation of EMUs.

From then on, not only was the 'Networker' produced in last numbers, but many other private concerns produced a variety of their own standard designs such as the 'Electrostar', 'Juniper' or 'Desiro', and some that did not spawn any derivatives, such as Hunslet's Class 323. Hugh Llewelyn uses a selection of his excellent photographs of EMUs to illustrate their history.

Hugh Llewelyn (Author)